The head of Tennessee's prison system has announced his resignation following the failed execution of death row inmate Christa Pike.
Governor Bill Lee announced the departure on Saturday in a joint statement with Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada. Strada said his stepping down was "in the best interests" of the state and called the ongoing investigation into the incident "entirely appropriate and necessary."
"Commissioner Strada has served with integrity, and I appreciate his willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during this difficult moment," Lee said.
Lee has ordered an independent review into the attempted execution and halted all executions in Tennessee for the remainder of the year.
Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer, survived two injections of pentobarbital on Wednesday and remains in critical condition at a hospital in Nashville, where doctors are working to clear the drugs from her body.
According to her lawyers, Pike "could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly throughout the procedure" while receiving the two lethal doses. She was subsequently transported to hospital by ambulance. As of Thursday night, she was unconscious, intubated, and on a ventilator.
Pike's legal team called Strada's resignation "justified" but said "it does nothing to help Christa now." They added: "What happened to her Wednesday reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person. We hope the Governor's call for a full, independent review will expose the profound problems within Tennessee's entire death penalty system."
The state's Department of Correction defended the method used, stating that "the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out." Authorities have not explained what went wrong and have not said whether they intend to attempt the execution again.
Pike's lawyers filed an emergency motion on Friday to preserve "any and all evidence" related to the failed execution. Her legal team had previously warned that her medical history — including thrombocytosis, a blood-clotting condition, and small veins — created a risk that she would experience "unnecessary" pain and suffering during a lethal injection.
The attempted execution proceeded after multiple last-minute legal challenges by Pike's attorneys failed. The US Supreme Court rejected two separate efforts to halt the lethal injection, and the governor denied a clemency request.
Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured, and killed 19-year-old Slemmer in 1995 in Knoxville, Tennessee. She was sentenced to death the following year. She is the only woman on Tennessee's death row.
